A Vanishing Breed
Trip Start
Jan 15, 2006
1
43
52
Trip End
Sep 05, 2006
Otavalo,
Ecuador
Monday, May 29, 2006
Our hostess last night at Casa Mojanda, Betti, spent 15 years in New York working for the Legal Aid Society before opening a small ecolodge in the Ecuadorian Andes. Meals were served communal style, consisted of locally grown organic produce and were entirely vegetarian (tasty but somewhat unsatisfying for this carnivore.) I recognized I was in hostile territory politically and tried (probably unsuccessfully) to hide my personal views as we explored her perspectives on the issues of the day
01 - Dropping the Jeep Off at the Port
. Fortunately for me, it is usually not difficult to elicit extended pontifications from the unreformed liberal.Betti seems to continue to believe that communism offers a better way. While discussing Cuba she said that their universal health care and free education has allowed them to accomplish so many things. I was tempted to ask "Like what? Per-capita GDP that is 7% of the US? Availability of meat no more than once a week? Shortages of basic medicines including aspirin?" I held my tongue.
Other political bon mots included a couple of conspiracy theories. The US government and international shipping companies are preventing a road being built between Panama and Colombia in order to prevent illegal South American immigration and maximize shipping revenue. Chemical companies, meanwhile, are pushing agricultural enhancements such as fertilizer and higher yielding seeds (some, gasp, are even genetically modified) in order to wipe out native cultures and 'addict' local farmers to their high-revenue products. Needless to say, Hugo Chavez and Che Guevera are big heroes. Surprisingly, she is still waiting for Ollanta Humala to 'prove his progressive credentials.'
Despite disagreeing with most of her views, I will give her credit for living her ideals
02 - On Horseback
. She uses her ecolodge revenue to support a number of local businesses and has established a public school near the resort.----------------
On Saturday night, we attended the social event of the weekend in Otavalo, the cockfights. We were able to find the arena by following the steady stream of young men with a chicken or two under their arms. Once inside, the air was filled with a cacophony of what sounded like poultry smack talk. ¨Chicken? You callin´me chicken! You´re a chicken!¨
We watched two bouts which were pretty uneventful. It turns out that chickens really aren´t capable of doing that much damage to each other. The second bout went the full 10 minutes without reaching a conclusion. Ten minutes of fighting is well beyond the stamina of the average chicken. By the end, they were just leaning on each other like two tired boxers in a clinch. One chicken even sat down for a quick rest. That of course brought the handlers scurrying forward to give each bird a quick pep talk before restarting the bout. As one might imagine, the whole event seemed to be an excuse for the menfolk to gather, have a few drinks and gamble on random events.
We spent three days in Guayaquil where we were shipping the Jeep to Panama. We worked with a very expensive but, so far, only moderately reliable shipping agent. Our fingers are crossed that it will be in Panama when we arrive. Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador but it lacks charm. There has been a lot of recent investment in parks and shopping malls, so the city seems livable, but a bit dull.
Our next stop is the Amazon. We have our bug juice and sunscreen packed.
